yesterday I bought a an AMD 64 system (Abit mainboard, 3000+, 1GB RAM). First I ran into trouble because my box always crashed. After some investigation I found out that the Infineon memory modules didn't play well with the board/CPU so I changed them today. Hopefully the new modules will work better (Currently I am still at work). Fortunately I got my box running by underclocking the rams to 333. This way I could get a first impression of my new box at least

Now would you say it is a good idea to start from scratch, build a new system from ground up? I used my old Gentoo installation optimized for AthlonXP and recompiled this and that package. I've encountered no problems so far though I wonder whether a mixed setup is a good idea

I always like installing from scratch. It makes sure all your stuff is clean and you get a fresh portage tree. I dunno. I tend to tinker with things (can we say packages.mask...) and sometimes with a fresh install things will just work right that never worked before. It's also a good way to redo partitions, follow the gentoo security guide, use a different logger, etc.

And if you get tired of your new computer I can give you my shipping address.... _________________http://ckdake.com/

Just to be sure I understood... I have similar plan to switch my AthlonXP2000 for a Athlon64 3000. But I optimized my Gentoo with -march=athlon-xp.

I know that -march break compatibility with previous processor, but what about futur ones... Can I just exchange processor, and it will run fine as a 32bit system or not ?

[EDIT] also what to use after if I stay 32bits, do I stay with -march=athlon-xp ? or should I switch to something else ?_________________"May God stands between you and harm in all the empty places where you must walk" - Babylon 5

Well to have the best of my new processor I understand... but my problem is to know if, meanwhile, I can use the same "old" Gentoo as it was built ?_________________"May God stands between you and harm in all the empty places where you must walk" - Babylon 5

As for -march breaking things, it usually only break backwards compatibility, not forwards...the only way I could think to do that would be to make some wierd and major core arch changes in the CPU. I've seen comparisons of the Athlon64 core vs the AthlonXP core and the general opinion is that the are basically the same with the exception being that the 64 has a HUGE cache and the 64-bit extensions...but the 32-bit stuff hasn't really changed a whole lot since the original Athlons if memory servers. The Athlon core is one of the longest running CPU cores ever. They said that it was dead somewhere around 1 GHz or so...and look at it now. 2.2GHz in the A64 and goin' strong. Wonder how long it'll last?

That'll be a while given the massive install base of x86 machines, and the fact that intel "supposedly" released a statement saying they won't have an x86-64 compatible machine till 2005...if thats even true. If amd were to go 100% 64bit they'd lose a huge market.

Except that AMD can go 100% 64bits for the processor, and users can stay 32bits OS (on 64bits processor). Athlon64 3200+ performs better than AthlonXP 3200+ even in 32bits. So there is no point of not upgrading to an AMD64 if you already plan to switch CPU (socket and other consideration put aside).

Beside AMD roadmap suggests a rapid switch to 64bits, where AthlonXP will be the new low budget category._________________"May God stands between you and harm in all the empty places where you must walk" - Babylon 5

Except that going completely 64-bits is what the itanium did...and we all know how that went. If they went totally 64-bit that would mean a removal of 32-bit. I think what you are thinking of is exactly what they've done to begin with.